Eugenics

Eugenics is a field of applied genetics which aims at improving the genetic quality of a human population through excluding certain genetic groups judged to be less desirable and promoting other genetic groups judged to be superior. The Eugenics movement was founded by Francis Galton in 1883, but Plato had supported selective breeding in humans since 400 BC, and the concept had a longer history. During the early 20th century, Eugenics was negatively associated with Adolf Hitler and Nazism due to his belief that Aryan (Norse/white) people were genetically superior to other ethnic groups and that they should be given large amounts of space (Lebensraum) which they could inhabit. The Eugenics movement became controversial due to marriage prohibitions, forced sterilization, and occasional persecution of minority groups, but Eugenics evolved alongside human rights and took on a new form during the 21st century. With the rise of assisted reproduction technology during the 1980s and 1990s and the advent of genome editing in the 2010s, a new form of eugenics rose to prominence, and the first creation of genetically-edited human babies by Chinese scientist He Jiankui in November 2018 caused a wave of controversy.